– fine acoustic folk & neo-classic & alt country & some dream pop –

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

I just wanted to tell you that CFM is closed from now on. All content remains, but I definitively won’t write any other post on this blog. This doesn’t come too surprising for I said it a couple of times before, still my heart aches quite a bit writing down these words.

But now comes the BIG BUT:

There is another blog up on the nets where I will write from now on. It will be in German and I will mostly write about folk and modern classic and especially about the symbiosis of those two genres. If you like to follow me, I would really apreciate it if you would spread the word about ‘Modern Classic+Folk’

I’m really sorry I can’t continue CFM and I love you all for all the love you gave back to me! But I made my decision and everything is ready for the launch of the new blog, even the first post is up and running. So, I love you all, dear CFM readers and maybe I will hear from you on MCF, too. Here’s the link.

I hope you’re all doing well. Just wanted to tell that I recently finished my final exams and therefore finished my studies too. Finally.

This means that CFM will hopefully be coming back in the next weeks with some new material. Due to much stress while learning for the final exams and being broke all the time I didn’t have much opportunities to track down all the folk and indie music of late 2010 and 2011. So there is a big gap for this period of time. Everybody who has some serious hints for me please posts them in the comments (though I mostly followed Slowcoustic and therefore know the music posted by Smansmith).

Also I deceided to run the blog in German from now on, so this will be the last post in English. This doesn’t mean you can’t contact me in English or comment in English. I would like to have both languages around here, knowing that most of you don’t speak German. I thought very long about chancing the blog language, but in the end I think it is the best for me especially with regards to my personal motivation.

If everything turns out well, I will do my Ph.D. in the next years and hopefully find some time to busy myself more with folk music again. As I said in the last post, there will be no daily routine with the articles anymore. I write as I go. Consequences of this will be that there are less articles (obvicious) but also longer and more detailed reviews. This means I will pick out just my absolute personal favourites and hope to present you some great music you’ll really fall in love with.

The next steps towards the CFM relaunch will be saving some money to pay wordpress costs to embed mp3s, get an overview over the current folk releases and artists, find some good music and write up the first articles. So there is some work to do until you will read the first folk related post here. But I hope you will step by again and rejoin CFM.

p.s. In the meantime while CFM was offline somebody thought, that he had to copy most parts of my blog name to create another folk blog (maybe hoping to steal clicks from google searching for folk music, I don’t know). This other blog is called Common Folk Music and also uses the abbreviation CFM. So don’t get confused. This blog, Common Folk Meadow, was and always will be the original CFM and I have nothing to do with that other blog.

Right after the great news concerning the new Handsome Family compilation, I’m proud to announce to you the new Chatham County Line album which goes by the name Wildwood. I have the feeling that Chatham County Line is a much underappreciated band and I hope their new release will give them some more attention (btw it’s their fifth full length, check out the others too, they are great!). You can pre-order Wildwoodright here and every pre-order gets an exclusive MP3 track extra + if you are one of the first fifty buyers, you get a special keychain modeled after the microphone stand the band regularly uses. So, if you’re curious what this microphone stand looks like or if you’re perhaps interested in the music, yeah…, you really should check out this nice video of the song Crop Comes In. For me it’s just perfect.

I think this should’ve made you wanting to hear the rest of the album. And if this is true, you have one complete week to stream the whole thing to decide if, better: when, you want to buy your personal copy. So, don’t wait and get this album stream on: GET IT ON!

I just found out that one of CFM’s favorite bands ever, The Handsome Family – the best southern gothic and alt country band there ever was and will be – is about to release a new collection of songs in the vein of the former Smothered And Covered collection. If those are not the greates news you can get to make your day sweet, I don’t know what else could be. I for myself just pre-ordered the thing and I highly advise you to do the same thing asap. Here’s the link: click it!

At last the official quote from the website:

We have a new CD Release!
“Scattered: A Further Collection of Lost Demos, Orphaned Songs and Odd Covers”.
In the spirit of “Smothered and Covered” we’re releasing another cd full of bits and bobs. We should have copies to sell by June 10 and will have some on our upcoming tour dates. For the first year it will only be available on our website and at our shows. You can pre-order a copy here ( http://www.handsomefamily.com/Nmerch.html#anchor864587 ) and we’ll send one out to you when we get our first shipment pressed or you can buy one from us at a live show.

Here’s what’s on the cd….

“The Lost Soul ” originally recorded for Bloodshot Records’ 2005 compilation, For a Decade of Sin.
When it Rains,” was supposed to be on Twilight but somehow fell by the wayside.
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” by Dylan, recorded for Uncut’s, Highway 61 Revisited Revisited.
“Snowball” originally released on Bloodshot’’s 2002 children’’s record, The Bottle Let Me Down.
“Ain’t No Grave” written by Brother Claude Ely.
“Little Buddy, one of our earliest attempts at songwriting (1993).
“Eleanor Rigby bluegrass version with the Rivet Gang.
“A Plague of Humans,” written for David Coulter’s “Plague Songs ” that took place at the Barbican in 2007.
“Famous Blue Raincoat” Leonard Cohen’s classic.
Drinking Beer on the Roof, an alternate to the “Red Leaf Forest. We realized later we liked these lyrics better.
“Telephones and Telescopes” originally released as a 7”” single by Speed Kills in 1992.
“The Lost Highway” most-famously recorded by Hank Williams. Our version’s from 2002.
“Honcho” is an instrumental recorded by Brett on 4-track in 1991.
“The Blizzard” by Harlan Howard, most-famously recorded by Jim Reeves.
What does the Deep Sea Say?” A traditional we first heard sung by The Blue Sky Boys.
“Tranquilized” is Brett’’s sad song about life post mental hospital. 1996.
June Bugs” (alternate take) this version has a certain magic we lost in the final mix released on Honey Moon.
One Way Up” (4-track demo) is an early (1990) 4-track version of a song later released on Odessa .

We have a new CD Release!
“Scattered: A Further Collection of Lost Demos, Orphaned Songs and Odd Covers”.
In the spirit of “Smothered and Covered” we’re releasing another cd full of bits and bobs. We should have copies to sell by June 10 and will have some on our upcoming tour dates. For the first year it will only be available on our website and at our shows. You can pre-order a copy here ( http://www.handsomefamily.com/Nmerch.html#anchor864587 ) and we’ll send one out to you when we get our first shipment pressed or you can buy one from us at a live show.Here’s what’s on the cd….

“The Lost Soul ” originally recorded for Bloodshot Records’ 2005 compilation, For a Decade of Sin.
When it Rains,” was supposed to be on Twilight but somehow fell by the wayside.
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” by Dylan, recorded for Uncut’s, Highway 61 Revisited Revisited.
“Snowball” originally released on Bloodshot’’s 2002 children’’s record, The Bottle Let Me Down.
“Ain’t No Grave” written by Brother Claude Ely.
“Little Buddy, one of our earliest attempts at songwriting (1993).
“Eleanor Rigby bluegrass version with the Rivet Gang.
“A Plague of Humans,” written for David Coulter’s “Plague Songs ” that took place at the Barbican in 2007.
“Famous Blue Raincoat” Leonard Cohen’s classic.
Drinking Beer on the Roof, an alternate to the “Red Leaf Forest. We realized later we liked these lyrics better.
“Telephones and Telescopes” originally released as a 7”” single by Speed Kills in 1992.
“The Lost Highway” most-famously recorded by Hank Williams. Our version’s from 2002.
“Honcho” is an instrumental recorded by Brett on 4-track in 1991.
“The Blizzard” by Harlan Howard, most-famously recorded by Jim Reeves.
What does the Deep Sea Say?” A traditional we first heard sung by The Blue Sky Boys.
“Tranquilized” is Brett’’s sad song about life post mental hospital. 1996.
June Bugs” (alternate take) this version has a certain magic we lost in the final mix released on Honey Moon.
One Way Up” (4-track demo) is an early (1990) 4-track version of a song later released on Odessa .

Just wanted to let you know that the new Uncles album (I mentioned it here and here) is finally out and totally amazing. But that’s not too surprising because all the tracks that were available in the forefield were just great. But the best thing about the release: you can download the entire thing for free! So, don’t wait and click the following links to get the album via Divshare or just use the official download from the band page. What are you waiting for?

I wrote about the upcoming Uncles album earlier (you can read it here) and now the band is offering their new single Deaf Dumb Dog for your listening pleasure and for free download. Deaf Dumb Dog is different than the two tracks I embedded in my first article; still folky it’s more experimental, maybe more in the vein of musicians like good old Will Oldham who understands to combine folk with nearly every other music genre out there. The atmosphere is kind of dark, the guitars are decent and the percussions are in the back – because of the many breaks and the rough song-structure you can listen to he song many times without getting bored. In comparison to the previous two singles, Deaf Dumb Dog is much more complex with a grande final – this (hopefully) shows that the upcoming album will be complex and not your standard background music – I’m very curious to hear the whole thing and I think Uncles are on their way to score big with their debut record Replacing Words With Other Words.

As a CFM reader there is a fair chance that you know J. Tillman (of course you do…) and therefore I assume that you are also familiar with his amazing 2007 Cancer And Delirium record. But do you remember the label that released the album? If not, you really should. Yer Bird Records is a small label putting out high quality (often folk) music. Along with J. Tillman there are releases from folk/folk rocker The Gunshy, alt country band Blackbird Harmony (who sadly broke up) and of course folk singer-songwriter Hezekiah Jones, just to name a few. The reason why I tell you this is simple: Yer Bird Records just re-launched and has new owners – and if you haven’t heard it yet, it’s nobody else than Sandy (from the Slowcoustic blog) and his wife Judy. I don’t know, but I see a future full of great music releases coming and Yer Bird will be their home. To celebrate the re-launch, Yer Bird received a full make over and a new, great looking layout – but that’s not all! If you haven’t purchased Hezekiah Jones’ music yet, you can now order an exclusive bundle from Yer Bird’s store containing all his releases. Still more to come: the line-up for the follow up compilation of the stunning Folk Music For The End Of The World was confirmed (but not yet shared). But I can let you know that it will be awesome – lot’s of great bands, that’s for sure. The title will be Folk Music For What Lies Ahead and “is meant to represent the new launch of the label”. Release date seems to be set for summer – but let’s start celebrating right now! Be sure to visit Yer Bird and have a look around.

Here is a quote from the original newsletter:

Just wanted to send a note out about what’s going on at Yer Bird Records HQ. Yer Bird has recently move from Philadelphia to The Great White North…Calgary, Alberta and is now under the watchful eyes and ears of Judy & Sandy Smith (you may recognize Sandy from the Slowcoustic music blog). Along with a new look for the website (www.yerbird.com) we have also added digital downloads and a couple of new offerings!!

So, part 2. Yesterday I received a music submission for Uncles‘ upcoming debut album Replacing Words With Other Words. Uncles is a collaboration between Dan Bateman and Will Schwartz, two Queens-based singer-songwriters. The label shares the first two tracks which are very promising. Acoustic folk for the most time, but the info-sheet states that the album will also explore other genres, officially it says:

There’s a lot of sex on the record, some urban grit, a fair share of plaintive mid-western balladeering, tales of nursing-home dimentia, and plenty of violence, too. It’s a musically diverse album, with different members of the Ensemble of Uncles bringing their training from free jazz, classical, and folk idioms to support the songs.

I don’t know what the result will be like, but in the mail I received I read that it might sound a bit like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – and judging from the quote I can really imagine this and it makes me very curious to hear the full record. The two shared songs hopefully represent the overall quality of Replacing Words With Other Words, but I will keep you updated as soon as I have the opportunity to listen to the full record. The album will be officially released due April 15. This is their MySpace – check it out for further details.